‘Of course.’
In her amber blouse and brown skirt, her blonde hair done in a shining ponytail, Katherine resembled her mother more than usual. It was an elegant look, without quite being disdainful. For once the melancholy in her usual gaze had been replaced with something walking right up to the edge of happiness.
‘I think I’ve come up with a really good idea, Dev.’
‘I’m sure you have. You have a lot of good ideas.’
‘I know you’re just saying that because you’re such a nice guy, but I’m serious.’
‘So am I. So tell me your idea.’
‘That we hold a support rally for my mom tomorrow night. A huge one. If we put everyone to work on it I think we can make it impressive.’
‘Now that’s a good idea.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yes. I want to get your mother out of her “resignation” mood.’
‘I don’t think she’s really serious about that. She’s a lot more serious about the divorce, I’m afraid.’
Katherine was giving me news that could make the campaign even more difficult. I tried not to pound my fist on the desk and start running around screaming.
A divorce?
‘I guess you hadn’t heard about it. The second I said it I regretted it. The look on your face.’
‘When did this start?’
She was talking past the hurt. The eyes were mournful once again but the voice remained purposeful. She was a grownup now. She knew how to fake it.
‘You know Dad has a new one.’
‘So I hear. I thought their marriage counselor had set them up pretty well.’
‘For almost two years. But then he met this intern at his lawyer’s office.’
‘Intern? How old is she?’
‘Twenty-three. She looks like Audrey Hepburn.’
‘Good for her.’
A deep breath. ‘Mom is convinced this one is for real.’
‘She didn’t think that about the other ones.’
‘No. I would never have put up with it, but she did. She even had a small fling herself once — she never told me who with — but she felt guilty about it. Even if Dad wasn’t faithful, she wanted to be. She just waited him out. And it always worked out well. He got tired of them. Mom even had it figured out mathematically. Fourteen weeks tops.’
‘Wow.’
‘She started telling me all this when I was fifteen. I hated him for it but I had to admit in a painful way it was sort of fascinating. Fourteen weeks. She’d tell me when he had a new one — she trained me to see the signs. And hear them. The only time I ever heard my father sing was when he was having an affair. It was so stupid. You’d think he’d be aware of something like that.’ A soft laugh. ‘He has a really terrible voice. And he always sang the same song. “Lost in Love.” The song is as bad as his voice. Really lame. Mom always wondered if he sang it to his girlfriends.’
‘So does he know about the divorce?’
‘Oh, yes. They scream about it every night. He doesn’t want it to happen.’
‘Has it occurred to him that he could give up Audrey baby?’
‘He says she’s not the point. He says it’s just another one of his flings. He keeps saying they should go back to the marriage counselor but she says it’s too late for that.’
‘How do you feel about it?’
Another deep sigh. ‘Crazy as it sounds, I don’t want them to get divorced. I just want him to remember his age and to act it. He has this “star” thing about himself and it can really get embarrassing.’ The smile managed to be dismissive and fond at the same time. ‘It’s like him wearing that black turtleneck for the interview. I wouldn’t have blamed that poor director if he’d shot my father.’
‘I think that crossed his mind.’
‘She won’t do anything about it until after the election, of course. Whatever she says otherwise, she wants to go back to Washington and stay there till she’s about a hundred and forty. You know she was so wealthy growing up that she didn’t value things. She had it all. Holding office is the only thing that she’s ever had to fight for.’
It was time to circle back. ‘I’ll get hold of Abby. She knows all the local people we’ll need to set up this rally. I think I’ll ask your mother if she’d agree to do a short live interview on the local news before the rally.’
‘That could be pretty grim for her.’
‘We need to fight back. We need to reassure the base that we haven’t given up.’ I’d automatically slipped into canned-speech land. But I needed to hear it myself. ‘We know that Cory Tucker is innocent. We know that somebody set him up and set us up. We know that the press has taken Showalter’s word for things without doing any serious investigating on their own.’
‘You’re right. I’ll talk to her about it, too.’
Her cell phone played a Mozart piece. She slipped it out of her small brown leather purse and checked the screen. ‘It’s Mom.’
‘You talk to her. I’ll walk over to Abby’s office and give her the heads-up.’
‘What if Mom says no to the rally and the interview?’
‘With you and me both working on her, what chance does she have?’
For just a moment, her smile redeemed all the woes of the world.
‘I like the way you think, Dev.’
Twenty-Nine
Karen Foster was cute, smart and late.
I finally asked to be seated because I wanted an isolated table and the tables were going quickly.
It was easy to tell that the main restaurant in the hotel had recently been redecorated. The faint odor of paint and sawn lumber was in the air in a few places. Dramatic black and red tables and chairs lent the place a boldness that took a while to get used to. The floor was equally dramatic with striking shafts of gray and red. The light sources were concealed in gleaming black boxes along the black linen-covered walls. I was either in an experimental art gallery or some kind of avant-garde spaceship. I wasn’t sure which.
Abby called on my cell phone. I’d left her a message about organizing the TV interview and the rally.
‘You don’t want much, do you?’
‘I really apologize. But I’m busy, too.’
‘I’m only teasing you. The rally is easy. I just called Jean Fellows and she’ll have the place packed with volunteers and their families. There’s a bandstand we can use. And as far as the TV interview, all three stations’ll want it. I’ll pick the one that’s been least hostile toward Jess.’
‘That sounds reasonable.’
‘I was hoping we’d do something like this. Ted told me that she will barely leave her office at home for food or bathroom privileges. He also said she won’t talk to him much.’
She needed to be aware of everything that was going on.
‘They’re getting a divorce.’
‘What? Where did you hear that?’
‘Katherine. In my office a while ago.’
‘Has Jess lost her mind? No wonder she won’t speak to him.’ Then, ‘It’s the new bimbo, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah.’
‘But he’s had so many in the past. What’s so special about this one? I mean, he’s always been a shitty husband. If they had a national competition for shitty husbands he’d be in the top three.’
‘Jess thinks he’s serious about this one.’
‘He’s serious about all of them.’
‘Fourteen weeks. Jess worked out the math.’
‘I wish he’d stick his dick in a light socket.’
‘He may already have done that. But she’ll wait till after the election.’
She paused before she said it. ‘We’re not going to win this one, are we?’
‘O ye of little faith.’